Atiku visits Afenifere in Ondo, as group denies endorsing any aspirant

FORMER Vice President of Nigeria and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspirant, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, on Tuesday, visited the leadership of the Yoruba Pan socio-political group in Akure, just as the group stated it has not endorsed any presidential aspirant.

Speaking through its General Secretary, Chief Sehinde Arogbofa, the group described the report making a roundabout the adoption of an aspirant as spurious, saying no serious group would adopt an aspirant when political parties are yet to produce candidates.

Arogbofa said Atiku visit to the leadership of Afenifere was to intimate the group about his ambition to contest in the next 2019 presidential election.

He said, “he is not the only aspirant to visit us, others have come to intimate the leadership about their ambition and to see how we can reconcile what they want with our own philosophy and with our own way of doing things.”

He, however, said the group has not endorsed any aspirant, urging the public to wait for the appropriate time when we shall speak to our country.

“It is when political parties have put forward their candidates that Afenifere and its partners across Nigeria in the Nigerian Leaders and Elders Forum would make a choice of a candidate whose vision and commitment tally with our quest for a productive and working Nigeria.

“We must state emphatically that our preoccupation at the moment is to engage Presidential aspirants vis-a-vis our conviction that for Nigeria to make progress, It must be restructured into a truly federal polity.

“We are fully committed to the goal of saving Nigeria from collapse and putting in place a leadership that can green-start the rebuilding of our country to make it take its pride of place in the comity of nations as well as providing opportunities for millions of our young people wasting away at home and perishing in the deserts in search of elusive greener pasture in spite of our having all that is needed to give them chances in life at home,” Arogbofa said.

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Meanwhile, Atiku emphasised the need to restructure the country in order to return the nation on the path of greatness, noting that the present All Progressives Congress (APC) has failed to take the country to the promised land.

According to Atiku, all the aspirants of the PDP have resolved to come together to pick the right candidate and kick out APC in the next year presidential election.

He said ” we are witnessing the greatest mistake of voting for APC in 2015 but let us make sure they don’t come back in 2019 and we must ready to kick APC government out in 2019.

“Every growth that has been recorded under PDP has been rubbished. Let us go back and make sure we kick out this government. APC has brought about the greatest economic decline, disunity to this country and we must put an end to Nigerians sufferings”

Speaking at the party Secretariat, the chairman of the Elders forum, Prof. Olu Agbi, solicited for support for Atiku because of his leadership quality.